Microsoft's conference marketing, part 3

Over the weekend I wrote about a major Microsoft marketing/sponsorship gaffe -- a cheesy, crass, embarrassing commercial that took place on the main stage during the Saturday morning welcome session. If you look over the comments to that post, you'll see I'm not the only one who was cringing.

Then, via Kevin O'Keefe, I learned that Microsoft took a softer, lower-key approach to marketing at Gnomedex, a tech conference held just a few weeks ago and amply sponsored by Microsoft. In a July 3 posting, Gnomedex founder Chris Pirillo praised Microsoft for rewriting the rules of conference sponsorship:

Pirillo wrote: "Microsoft (as this year’s diamond sponsor) did not have any scheduled time on stage. By this action, they have set the bar incredibly high for conferences the world over. No longer need conference coordinators be pressured by pay-for-play politics -- and no longer need top conference sponsors fall victim to the misconception that speaking time is implied."

Given that moment of shining progress, why did Microsoft backslide so suddenly into a heavy-handed, off-target sales pitch?

I suspect there are several reasons...

Here's my guess: Probably, this unfortunate gaffe resulted from the miscommunication inherent in large organizations and events, the mistaken assumptions of old-school PR/marketing pros, and the fact that BlogHer happened to fall a week or so before a major Microsoft product launch. It is also possible that there was miscommunication or lack of clarity between the BlogHer organizers and Microsoft.

Or all of the above. Or none of the above. I'll look into this when I have time, but for now I'm inviting people from BlogHer and Microsoft to discuss this.

To Microsoft's credit, Kristin Mak (a Microsoft staffer who attended BlogHer) spoke up in the comment thread of my first posting on this topic. She wrote:

"I agree with you on our approach at this year’s conference and I’d like to let you know our intentions were genuine. We attended the BlogHer conference to show our support to the community and to learn what issues and topics are important to you. The feedback you provided was extremely helpful -- we hope to get the chance to show to you and the rest of the BlogHer's out there that if we didn't get it in the past we are truly working towards getting it in the future. We believe in blogging and the community and recognize the importance of being part of events like BlogHer and others in a way that is not too intrusive."

Now, that's classy -- and effective. Owning up is always better than dismissal or defensiveness. Thanks, Kristin, for speaking up on behalf of your employer. I do think Microsoft offered genuine support for the conference, and for blogging. I just hope what happened on that stage at BlogHer is a thing of the past.

I hope other companies who experience negative coverage can take a lesson from Kristin's example. The public conversation offers ample opportunities to mend bridges and recover from missteps.

More on this later...

Comments

[Kristin Mak]

Thanks for the kind words! Not sure if you were at BlogHer this year but we were their again and hopefully did a better job :)